The Federal Government has said it spends over N1.1trn on importation of wheat, rice, fish and sugar annually.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinnwumi Adesina, stated this in Abuja on Friday at a media briefing to commemorate first 100 days in office of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He ,however, said a whopping N635bn was spent on wheat, N356bn on rice, N217bn on sugar, while importation of fish gulped N97bn in 2010.
He described as a “disastrous glory” the situation of the agricultural sector in the recent times, adding that from the initial Agricultural Master plan in the early 1960’s, agriculture was supposed to generate $10bn [about N1.6trn] annually as revenue for the nation.
To reverse this ugly trend, Adesina vowed to make the agricultural sector competitive, efficient, and productive in creating wealth and jobs, guarantee food security and diversify the Nigerian economy.
He said, “The vision of the present administration is to make Nigeria a hunger free nation. We looking at the agricultural sector that will drive the income growth, achieve food security, national security, generate employment and transform Nigeria into a major food player in the world.”
“To do these, we must stop some things and start to do some things. The era of depending on agriculture as a development project is over. We will not have isolated projects that are not connected in a way that can drive agricultural growth, income growth, job creation, in a very measurable manner.”
Adesina pointed out that private sector would be the major drivers in the implementation of Agricultural Transformational Action Plan recently presented to President Goodluck Jonathan and his economic management team.
The minister said execution plans had been designed in the following food value chain such as rice, cassava, sorghum, maize, soya bean, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, livestock and fisheries.
On the issue of provision of fertiliser to genuine farmers, he assured that the Federal Government would no longer participate in the distribution of the commodity to eliminate the politics stalling the distribution network.